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Bass with a leader?

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I am well aware that when fishing for Bass with spinners, some jigs, topwater's etc that there is always that chance that a Pike is gonna come by and take your lure. I have lost plenty of lures from this.

Now, I just purchased some top water Bass lures. I don't want to lose them to a pike. Trust me though, I am all for catching a pike, I just don't want to lose my lure. So, do Bass really care if I have a leader on? I have the thin black titanium 12" leaders.

Or for even jigging or using spinners for Bass, can I be using a leader just in case a Pike wants to take a shot at it?

I figure that the thin black titanium leaders are less visible than the thick plastic coated steel leaders. Right?

Your thoughts on this?

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I prefer not to use leaders, but my dad uses leaders on quite a few lures and he still catches his share of fish. I think you'll find with topwaters, a leader will negatively impact the action of the lure.

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I am a billionaire so i don't use leaders, but even if i wasn't the billionaire oil/drug company/commercial real estate/entertainment tycoon i am, i wouldn't use a leader unless its like a x-rap or something other than top water that is just as likely to catch a pikeski. I guess its just a risk you have to take... but maybe i would if the lake is known to hold more pike than bass... jeeze i guess its just what your comfortable with.

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Topwaters and leaders IS kind of tough unless it's a buzzbait. Wire sinks, so it can hose up topwaters badly.

If you use mono, you might try a short piece of 17# or 20# mono and see if that messes the bait up. Fluoro is a no-go for topwaters for the same reason wire is - the stuff sinks like a rock.

For jerkbaits and jigs that tend to get bitten off a lot (I fish some lakes with LOTS of small pike, and they absolutely love bass jigs) I use a short (4 inch) leader made from Cortland Toothy Critter wire. It's soft, thin and doesn't mess baits up at all, plus you can attach it to your line with a back-to-back Uni-knot, and tie lures on just like you would if you were using mono or braid.

I use braid for a lot of my topwater fishing (Fireline - I fish smallie topwaters on spinnign gear), because it floats, and when I do get pike, they rarely bite through it.

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SledNeck was the first thing I thought about after losing my a x-rap to a pike a couple weekends ago. I had noticed that he uses a leader with his x-raps when he posted pics of hawgs.

The next day the 'ol lady was reading in the boat while I was searching for the elusive bass . I had caught around a dozen more pike since losing the first x-rap, and I was still leaderless when I let out an ARGGHHHH!!!. The wife didn't miss a beat, without looking up from reading, she just muttered "$7."

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The next day the 'ol lady was reading in the boat while I was searching for the elusive bass . I had caught around a dozen more pike since losing the first x-rap, and I was still leaderless when I let out an ARGGHHHH!!!. The wife didn't miss a beat, without looking up from reading, she just muttered "$7."

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Get some Toothy Critter wire for Jig and Pig leaders. Use it all the time. Or, get some 12 or 18# Sevenstrand uncoated wire, and a little Spro #10 swivel. Haywire twist the wire to the jig, little tiny piece of shrink tubing so the wire doesn't catch weeds, same on the swivel end, and off you go. Leaders only have to be 3-4" long to prevent 90% of the bite-offs, and bass don't seem to care much. The stuff is thinner than mono of comparable strength.

2 weekends ago, I was out of TC wire, and fishing with swimming jigs, which pike positively love. I lost jigs on 4 consecutive casts.

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Kind of dumb but I was fishing a spook and got it bit off 4 times one morning. Never lossed the lure. Two of the pike swam a long ways (50-75') with it before they shook it out. The only reason I got it back that many times is that is was dead calm and the spook sits really high in the water so I could see it when it floated up.

Well you must be talking about my old-New Cat?
Tore it down and found a finger tight head bolt and loose carb boot bolt! Someone at the Cat plant went to lunch a little early!!
The cylinder is in the shop right now so it may be back on the lake fishing anyway yet this year? High speed trails. May be not?

Following Monday's snow we hit the Reservoir Trail out of Twig Wed afternoon. Freshly groomed and what a sweet ride it was but too short More snow in the forecast. Ride When and What You Can. Going out Fri night.

"A little too fast for a sled not completely broke in yet any way"
For what the new POO Axys or the 2003 Cat?
Very low miles on an old sled is good but sitting idle for years is no good.
Dirty carbs and or rust on the bearings was the Cats downfall.

Most riders are going to cross a driveway in the ROW as if it were any other crossing. Start putting up barricades or berms to impede crossing the the ROW and heads will butt. Point is you may have paved the driveway onto the ROW and feel some ownership but the law says you don't control it. I see it all the time where a landowner blocks of the ROW. The local club might contact you or Law Enforcement will to inform you to remove the barrier.

Well, it’s been a few more days. Cardinals are eating it, but they don’t seem to prefer it. Must be a lower quality seed, perhaps? I’m only getting 1 or 2 cardinals now, as opposed to the 10 to 12 I was getting before. Also not getting the sunset feeding frenzy anymore. The redpolls love it though. Anyway, do you guys do anything to help prevent sunflower shell messes, or do anything to clean them up, or do you just deal with the mess?

I noticed lately most tire shops have and use torque wrenches instead of just relying on impacts like they used to. Probably a liability thing. Keep in mind a lot of shops employ high school kids part time which is good because they know everything at that age. I had a shop years back put on lugs so tight it ruined the rims and lug nuts. Breaker bar is also a handy tool as well as the BFH

It may be that they knew the folks up there needed a little extra help because they couldn't get the Righty tighty-Lefty loosey deal down. So, they had to make special trucks just for the Yukon Territory?